Well I do not have it yet. I live in Arkansas and will fly to Austin on the 25th to drive it home. It is a 2010 Sport, manual. I only wish we had the diesel option like over in Europe.

Anything to look out for, or things that can easily and cheaply be upgraded? Is there a good site for cheap Mazda and after market marts?

Thanks,
Philip

 

Don't know how much you'd need to use them in Arkansas, but you can easily retrofit heated side glass into your mirror housings. Even if you don't get much winter weather they're also helpful with rain and fog.

 

The wife actually wanted those. Is the wiring already there? Are they controlled by the rear defrost? Where is a good place to find them?

 

I would like to suggest you look into rear camber links, then after they are installed have the car realigned with less aggressive negative camber. Your tires (and wallet) will love you for it, and on the street, you'll hardly notice a difference in handling.
Then you can look into the RB 27mm rear sway bar (you will want Mazdaspeed3 or aftermarket links w/that too) that will virtually eliminate understeer.

The combination of the two will offer exceptional handling and eliminate early tire wear.
*edit* Oh, and neither will affect the ride adversely either.

Yes, the wiring is already @ the mirrors/in the door.

 

Thanks for the info. How long is the average tire life without the upgraded rear camber links?

 

Well let's just say that with +/-2* of negative camber, even regular rotations won't save tires for too long.
Before the camber links in my car, and afterall what is a Mazda5 but larger, heavier verion of the Mazda3, I would regularly see a difference in wear of 2/32's between the inside tread and outside. That's w/regular 5,000 mile rotations.
My car has only 63,000 on the clock. I now have 5,300 miles on my 4th set of tires.
Mazda supoosedly does this for stability, but it's a FWD car to begin with. And all FWD cars naturally understeer anyway.
The rear bar I suggested, in conjunction with the factory front bar will reduce the understeer.
There is another option I was recently made aware of too. It's a 3-way adjustable 32mm hollow bar from J Barone Racing that might be worth looking into, $195.

 

I finally picked up my 5 yesterday. Great drive from Austin, TX to Little Rock, AR. I am really impressed with my car. Put all three car seats in this morning, it will be a little crowded until our youngest is forward facing.

 

Well that's GREAT!!! Congrats!! Pictures to follow I'm sure?

We have 3 Mazda dealers here... all owned by the same people. So much for no monopolies in America.
Which one did you go to? Mazda North, South or Georgetown?

 

Yup, the wiring is already in the car up to the car side of the plug that goes to the mirror. In the Mz3 the female side of the plug is on the inside of the car so you can just use a diode leg to make a pin and insert that in the mirror side of the plug. On the 5 since it's reversed you just run the wire into the door and tap the wire on the harness itself, bypassing the harness plug.

The install is pretty straight forward..... remove mirror housing, remove glass, remove three screws and run wiring through the housing. Install heated glass, reinstall mirror housing on the car and tap the wires.

I've done this mod to three Mz3's and to my father's Mz5 with no issues. The Mz5 mirrors run about $25/side (which is crazy since the 3's smaller mirrors cost $40/side) so it's a pretty cheap mod for how useful it is. Also yes the mirrors are controlled from the rear defroster control.

 

Georgetown? They referred to it as Roger Beasley Central. I will try to clean it up from the trip after it stops raining/misting here.

I also got a bought an auto-dim compass mirror but they were out of the install kits that I would assume are just wiring and instructions.